What was the very first thing that you booked for your wedding?

mrs.rab · January 2010

Thinking of starting with the Photographer?

squirrly · January 2010

Our venue has never hosted a wedding before, and we were negotiating with them when we actually booked the photog. He was holding two dates for us, and ultimately the hotel for our OOT guests could only offer decent rates for one of the two weekends we wanted, so we went with that one & everything else fell into line. It happens to be Mother's Day weekend, so florists are a PITA, but otherwise all is well.

ggmae · January 2010

We booked our venue first. Our ceremony and reception were at the same place. Then once we had a place and a date, we booked our videog, photog, and florist (in that order.)

CMM724 · January 2010

We booked the photog first (she's a friend - so she was happy to hold the date for me). Once we sealed the deal on the location we signed the final contract with the photographer.

cukimerrydoll · January 2010

Venues first - that way everthing else has a place to fall into. - Technically, we picked our date, and then our venues. But these can help determine eachother.

tenofcups4me · January 2010

Ceremony/reception site. I couldn't have chosen a photographer (or anything else) without knowing the date, which was dependent on the site's availability.

polichik · January 2010

We decided on our reception site, then ceremony site, but changed our first reception site. So, we booked the ceremony site first, then the photographer, and we're putting down the deposit on our reception site this Friday. The reception place almost never books for weddings, so we were safe waiting a while. Oh, I bought my dress a little while ago.

Next are ceremony chairs, then all the decor and stuff. And the cake!

psichick · January 2010

we picked out the venue first, then did the photographer.

JessAndTrav · January 2010

I just said ceremony site, I think. But it actually was the reception site. Our ceremony site was booked around the same time though.

janedoe1113a · January 2010

We booked our honeymoon first. Glad we did because it raised in price a couple days afterwards.

deepcovejackie · January 2010

We booked the villa in Mexico that will be our venue first.

SaraAndrew2010 · January 2010

We were looking at options and dates for the reception and ceremony at the same time. We officially booked the ceremony first since that was a dealbreaker for me.

We just booked a photographer and are just about to book a band.

angel2210 · January 2010

Haha I bought my dress very first thing. Like, before we even had a concrete date. That aside, we sort of booked the reception venue and church the same day since we had to coordinate the date and times. That was back in September and I only JUST booked the photographer three days ago.

mags0607 · January 2010

I still don't have a photgrapher booked...lol.

We booked the reception and church the same day.

gkb0910 · January 2010

We booked our church first. Then I called reception places available on that date. After we saw them, we booked one. The rest of the vendors fell in to place. Once we had a date we could talk to the other people to see who was available then.

mrsamyjones · January 2010

We booked our caterer first....totally out of order on everything but it was the best decision we could have made. It limited us on where we could have our wedding, but it steered us to the perfect place. We're getting married outside and our reception is in an old movie theatre.

After booking our caterer we booked our venues.
bought the dress
asked the wedding party
had the engagement party
found the photographer
and just booked the flowers last week.

danieliza1127 · January 2010

We booked our ceremony and reception venue first, then our Officiant. Then photographer, then florist, then DJ last.

I don't think you can really book any vendors, like photographer, until you have a date set in stone which means you need to book your ceremony/reception sites first.

lyndausvi · January 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_very-first-thing-booked-wedding?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:57211bdf-a2bd-493b-a840-21a528915881Post:5f7bf94c-d090-4615-ba26-8a0ac78051e3">Re: What was the very first thing that you booked for your wedding?</a>:
[QUOTE]I booked the photography...with a tentative hold on the date until I was able to confirm that. Photography was super important to me...or so I thought. 15 months later I have still not picked out my pics for the book which I need to do to get the CD of uncopyrighted pics.
Posted by saschaduran[/QUOTE]

hehe.. we are the same time out and still waiting on our album. DH is annoyed. (I do have the CD though)

betrothed123 · January 2010

We booked the reception site first, and were very lucky they had the date we wanted to get married on open still. From there we moved on to the photographer, because we had a definite date. The ceremony was held in my parents' back yard, so we could pick any day we wanted there.

mandysmear · January 2010

I booked my photographer tentatively for a couple of dates. Reason being was that the venue we wanted to have our reception at wouldn't allow us to book until 11 months out.

Had we been able to book it, we would have booked reception, ceremony and photographer right around the same time.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown · January 2010

The ceremony and reception sites are close together, so I booked them around the same time. Followed by the photographer. Honestly, unless you book your sites, you don't really have a date set, so how can you book other vendors?

ecsmiles · January 2010

We booked our ceremony/reception site (A Vineyard) first. We figured we needed to know their policies before we could start looking at everything else.

hoshiku · January 2010

location was not my primary concern (i had 5 venues in mind). i booked the photographer first, then the chapel, then the reception site, then the caterer. i think order of operations depends on what is important to you (i fell in love with the style of my photographer).

banana468 · January 2010

Ditto booking the ceremony / reception first.

IMO, you do those things before you even ask people to be in the wedding.

danieliza1127 · January 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_very-first-thing-booked-wedding?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:57211bdf-a2bd-493b-a840-21a528915881Post:6e6dba3b-c18d-4559-a9bf-3d03454eb689">Re: What was the very first thing that you booked for your wedding?</a>:
[QUOTE]location was not my primary concern (i had 5 venues in mind). i booked the photographer first, then the chapel, then the reception site, then the caterer. i think order of operations depends on what is important to you (i fell in love with the style of my photographer).
Posted by hoshiku[/QUOTE]

What if the venues you had in mind weren't available on the date you had booked with the photographer? You'd have to be sure the photographer was going to be flexible and let you change the date if you ran into any problems, and then hope he wasn't already booked up on the dates your venue is available.

banana468 · January 2010

Ditto Dani. If you're going to book something other than the ceremony/reception first, you need to either be VERY flexible with your venue choices or hope your vendors are flexible.

pooh8402 · January 2010

booked? the venue. I'm also of the camp that says "how can you book your vendors until you book your site? you don't have a date set." that's not to say I didn't start looking at photographers and talking to them. but photogs were not booked until the venue was finalized.

but what was the first thing I actually paid money for that is wedding-related? my shoes.

Bubbalub · January 2010

We booked the ceremony/reception venue first. We just put the deposit down a couple days ago! All the photographers I have contacted about availability/pricing have asked both when and where the wedding will take place. The venue really sets the tone for everything else so it makes the most sense to book it first.

As well as what PPs have said about having a solid date set to tell potential vendors.

latashaphillips81 · January 2010

i first booked the reception hall and then the church. i lucked out with a photographer because that is a profession my aunt is in so i can just give her any date and i know she'll make herself avail

mhickey426 · January 2010

I agree with the others who said u cant book the photographer first. Even if u dont give him a date but just a time frame. If another bride goes to them and tells them a date in the time frame chances are they are going to book it. They will call to tell you but unless you tell them yes right then and there then tough cookies. There are a million photographers out there to choose from so thats the easy part. The hard part if finding the right ceremony site and hall. There are more factors that come into play with these things (size, price, decor etc.) Also if you want to be the only wedding at the hall on the day of then your selection of available days might even be more limited.

You need to figure out if you want to get married and have the reception in the same place if so then book the hall. If you want to get married in a church or temple for example then you need to figure out which is more important to you the hall or ceremony site. If you have a special church you need to get married in then book that first. If you are all about the hall then book that.

AmyG73 · January 2010

Booked the reception site first, then the church, dj and photography. Now where working on caterers. Once we had the date and reception site everything is falling into place.

What was the very first thing that you booked for your wedding?

Re: What was the very first thing that you booked for your wedding?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards